Anniversary. This blog recently sped past a milestone: Cannonfire began on March 7, 2004. Yes, I've been annoying people online for a full decade. Here's a snippet from that very first post:
No Democrat with W's sorry record could carry such high poll numbers. A misbegotten war, a history of deception, high unemployment, ghastly deficits, scandal, restrictions on our liberties, verbal goofs galore, a widespread suspicion that the Quayle of this administration sits at the top of the ticket -- and yet this president still has plenty of fans. Just what does Bush have to DO to make himself more widely disliked?Ten years ago, a political writer might fairly have expected all readers to understand a reference to Dan Quayle. Now, many twenty-somethings may not be able to place the name. I feel ancient.
So much for the rear-view mirror. Let's look at the landscape around us right now...
A Christie-gate connection? In previous posts, we've discussed Christie crony David Samson, tapped to head the Port Authority. Well...
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Friday subpoenaed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for records related to potential conflicts of interest involving its chairman, David Samson, a prominent New Jersey lawyer and close political ally of Gov. Chris Christie, according to people briefed on the matter.
On Monday, the subpoena was withdrawn, apparently to clear the way for the investigation to be pursued by federal prosecutors in New Jersey, who had already been reviewing the politically charged closing of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September, according to two of those briefed on the matter.
It was not immediately clear why federal prosecutors in Manhattan, in the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney there, had issued the subpoena when their federal counterparts in New Jersey were conducting the bridge inquiry and the related investigation.If you will recall, Samson received heavy mention as well in the Hoboken-gate stories. (And lots of other stuff...)
Indeed, people briefed on the matter suggested that any federal investigation that grew out of the subpoena would likely play out in New Jersey, under the supervision of United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman, as opposed to being handled by prosecutors in Manhattan.
Neither of the federal prosecutor’s offices would comment on the subpoena issued on Friday. But an examination of possible conflicts of interest involving Mr. Samson would appear to represent a significant widening of the scandal.
Fishman has a promising record. He went after Tony Mack, the Mayor of Trenton, who apparently abused his position in furtherance of various land deals. That sounds a lot like what allegedly went down in Hoboken.
Will the Samson probe touch Christie? Maybe. But the governor knows how to hide his tracks.
The Mystery Snipers. Our friend Dojo Rat has delved further into this conundrum, drawing on the work done last week by William Engdahl of Global Research.
Let's start with Engldahl...
According to veteran US intelligence sources, the snipers came from an ultra-right-wing military organization known as Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO).
The leader of UNA-UNSO, Andriy Shkil, ten years ago became an adviser to Julia Tymoshenko. UNA-UNSO, during the US-instigated 2003-2004 “Orange Revolution”, backed pro-NATO candidate Viktor Yushchenko against his pro-Russian opponent, Yanukovich. UNA-UNSO members provided security for the supporters of Yushchenko and Julia Tymoshenko on Independence Square in Kiev in 2003-4.[4]
UNA-UNSO is also reported to have close ties to the German National Democratic Party (NDP). [5]
Ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the crack-para-military UNA-UNSO members have been behind every revolt against Russian influence. The one connecting thread in their violent campaigns is always anti-Russia. The organization, according to veteran US intelligence sources, is part of a secret NATO “GLADIO” organization, and not a Ukraine nationalist group as portrayed in western media.
These people are the dangerous mercenaries used all over the world to fight NATO’s dirty war, and to frame Russia because this group pretends to be Russian special forces. THESE ARE THE BAD GUYS, forget about the window dressing nationalists, these are the men behind the sniper rifles,” these sources insist. [7]Okay, that's a pretty long and intricate quote, and some of you may be feeling dizzy by now.
If true that UNA-UNSO is not “Ukrainian” opposition, but rather a highly secret NATO force using Ukraine as base, it would suggest that the EU peace compromise with the moderates was likely sabotaged by the one major player excluded from the Kiev 21 February diplomatic talks—Victoria Nuland’s State Department.[8] Both Nuland and right-wing Republican US Senator John McCain have had contact with the leader of the Ukrainian opposition Svoboda Party, whose leader is openly anti-semitic and defends the deeds of a World War II Ukrainian SS-Galicia Division head.[9] The party was registered in 1995, initially calling itself the “Social National Party of Ukraine” and using a swastika style logo. Svoboda is the electoral front for neo-nazi organizations in Ukraine such as UNA-UNSO.[10]
One further indication that Nuland’s hand is shaping latest Ukraine events is the fact that the new Ukrainian Parliament is expected to nominate Nuland’s choice, Arseny Yatsenyuk, from Tymoshenko’s party, to be interim head of the new Cabinet.
I'll bottom-line it: Engdahl thinks that the Mystery Snipers were far right extremists secretly toiling on behalf of a neocon faction within the American establishment. There's a lot of precedent for this sort of skullduggery.
For what it is worth (many readers will say "Not much" while a few will have a very different opinion), Putin blames the west for instigating regime change in Ukraine.
Notice that Putin repeatedly asks why the West created the crisis in Ukraine. He makes the important point that in post-Soviet countries, legality and democracy are fragile. Democracy and legality are not furthered by overthrowing democracy before it has taken roots and placing in office an unelected government by force and illegality. It is impossible to argue with this point. Why, indeed, did the West murder democracy and constitutional order in Ukraine?This goes much too far. Russia itself (the classic example of a great people perpetually living under bad government) is hardly a model democracy. The same could be said of Ukraine under Yanukovich.
Hell, the same could be said of the United States. Case in point...
The Deep State and Wall Street. The always-interesting Professor Peter Dale Scott has made some interesting observations about the links between the banksters and Spookworld. The bottom line:
A former Turkish president and prime minister once commented that the Turkish deep state was the real state, and the public state was only a “spare state,” not the real one.109 A better understanding of the American deep state is necessary, if we are to prevent it from assuming permanently the same role.Indeed. And this brings us, once again, to the current Ukrainian problem.
If Engdahl is right -- if American covert operators recruited local fascist thugs to do the dirty deeds that brought about a coup -- then who, ultimately, engineered this action?
Some of you will shout: "Obama! He did it. It's obvious." Well, it's not so obvious to me. If you read enough books about spies, two facts become crystal clear: American spooks don't always operate at a president's behest, and they have been known to network in ways outside the control of official agencies such as the CIA. (Think: Iran-contra. Think: Those bizarre, ad-hoc intelligence groups of the Dubya years, which operated well outside of -- and in opposition to -- the Agency.)
I think the President is being forced to react to a series of events which the neocons have engineered. The deep state has given the world a stew-pot full of chaos and topped it with a thick layer of cheesy propaganda. Now the leader of the "spare state" must restore order without pissing off a Washington establishment which has warmed to the idea of a new Cold War.
If you want to put a name and a face to that Deep State, I suppose Victoria Nuland will do. I'm not saying that she was the one who recruited the riflemen of UNA-UNSO to do a little "target practice" -- but she definitely represents a certain point of view.
5 comments:
Dojo Rat provides a lot of background to that Global Research article. So this goes all the way back to Reinhard Gehlen? Wish the GR article said more about the origin of their info than "western intelligence sources."
Joseph, I posted this several days ago. It says a lot regarding US involvement. Here it is again.
Robert Parry's, "A Shadow US Foreign Policy" is very enlightening.
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/02/27/a-shadow-us-foreign-policy/
Basically, under Reagan's National Endowment for Democracy, the neocons are still being funded to destabilize governments. For them, all foreign policy is a zero sum game. The Cold War never ended. The ultimate goal is the break up of Russia.
If you haven’t this essay yet, these quotes might get you interested.
“NED was founded in 1983 at the initiative of Cold War hardliners in the Reagan administration, including then-CIA Director William J. Casey. Essentially, NED took over what had been the domain of the CIA, i.e. funneling money to support foreign political movements that would take the U.S. side against the Soviet Union.”
“To organize this effort, Casey dispatched one of the CIA’s top propaganda specialists, Walter Raymond Jr., to the National Security Council. Putting Raymond at the NSC insulated the CIA from accusations that it institutionally was using the new structure to subvert foreign governments – while also helping fund American opinion leaders who would influence U.S. policy debates, a violation of the CIA’s charter. Instead, that responsibility was shifted to NED, which began doing precisely what Casey had envisioned.”
“Reagan’s White House was so nervous that the press corps might zero in on Raymond’s CIA propaganda background that it prepared guidance in case anyone should ask, according to a document recently released by the Reagan library. If a reporter questioned White House claims that “there is no CIA involvement in the Public Diplomacy Program” – by asking, “isn’t Walt Raymond, a CIA employee, involved heavily?” – the scripted answer was to acknowledge that Raymond had worked for the CIA but no longer.”
Congrats on a productive decade, Joseph.
Have you been following the recent Lockerbie revelations?
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/gaddafi-links-death-of-diana-to-lockerbie-1.377569
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Francovich
“The Maltese Double Cross[edit]
======================
Rabbi Oscar LeWinter, grandson of Albert Einstein, of Austrian origin. The stolen passports used by Iranian nationals on the recent airline disaster were Austrian.
http://www.public-interest.co.uk/diana/dianawhydie.htm
AKA, Oswald LeWinter…http://www.leopoldreport.com/LRsajt74.html
” Oswald LeWinter is the disinformant who did most damage in the Palme murder investigation. He kept the Police Investigation Group (PU) working for four years. LeWinter led an incredible double life. Behind the scenes, he was a professional disinformant, intelligence agent, and infiltrator, operating under cover names like “Y”, “Razin”, Razine”, “Racine”, “Wamma”, and “Ibrahim Razin”. The face he showed the world, however, was as a sophisticated and respected literature professor who had authored the book “Shakespeare in Europe ‘, a politician, and a poet.”
Ben
I thought I knew about LeWinter, Ben, but you've surprised me. When he was posing as a General, Ozzie befriended a friend of mine. This was back in the late 1990s. When my friend finally learned LeWinter's real name, I told him that Ozzie had played a role in bringing discredit to the October Surprise investigation.
Basically, LeWinter stepped forward and offered information to Barbara Honegger when she wrote her book "October Surprise." At the time, he used the name Razin. Barbara published what he said, offering a few caveats. (Or so I recall; I don't have the book to hand.) Later, during congressional testimony, LeWinter came forward and said that he had made the whole thing up, thereby bringing discredit to the entire story (which, of course, had plenty of other sources).
Incidentally, he came up with the "Razin" named because he happened to glance at a box of Raisin Bran during his first communication with Honegger. He explained this in a final phone call to her, after the testimony. He apologized, but said that he had to do it.
Later, LeWinter tried to score a lot of money from Mohammed Al Fayed by selling alleged CIA documents explaining the true story behind Diana's death. If I recall correctly, Ozzie may have done a little time for that one.
He got his start as a CIA/FBI snitch on the student movement in Berkeley, during the era of the Vietnam protests. He taught Shakespeare. The students thought he was one of the groovy people and often took him into their confidence. Michael Rossman, leader of the Free Speech movement, was one of the people who blabbed everything to Ozzie.
Ozzie has made all sorts of bizarre claims about either his parentage or his true identity. Obviously loopy stuff. I don't know if the guy is nuts or if he is pretending to be nuts for professional reasons. A Shakespeare expert (which he definitely is) would probably get some fun out of pretending to be mad "North by Northwest."
I've been looking for consistency in his portfolio, but I think he was just a 'Curveball' type opportunist.
The CIA drugrunning was my focus and I thought MadCowHopsinger would be curious about the fact that Lebanon CIA security Chief and entourage was on the Lockerbie flight....but nothing. I thought that weird, along with the fact that a briefcase with 500lbs of heroin found on site is documented.
Ben
Joe. I flippantly misspelled Daniels name. Please edit. He's a nice guy and don't wish to offend.
Ben
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